When Christians began in the fourth century to go on pilgrimages to Jerusalem and the Holy Land, if they were coming from Italy, Greece, Turkey or anywhere west of Israel, they tended to come most of the way by boat. And one of the favorite stopping spots was on an island off the south west coast of Turkey, the island of St. Nickolas of Myra. Here are some pictures from this island which is loaded with ruins of small chapels and churches.

The description above gets you oriented to what you will see when you land on this small island.

This little island, like so many in the region is very hilly as the view from the top here will show. Almost all of the ruins here are church ruins.

The basilica of St. Nickolas is the largest of the churches (see below). Nikolas was of course a real person, a bishop know for his generosity and gift giving, and probably the main origin of our jolly old St. Nick. Indeed Santa Claus is just a sort of hispanic and germanic combo way of saying St, Nick-claus.  He was a real person with a real story of kindness and generosity, and there are churches in various place in Turkey dedicated to him and his example.